The Last Queen and Archangel
by Hocloco
Summary: The Last Queen was written last year, but now the writer of the obscure, romantic story has to face some truths regarding her love for Garrus. He is a great warrior, and beloved leader, and she cares deeply for him from afar. But will she ever be able to win his heart? This is the continuation of "The Last Queen," published on FanFiction in 2012.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Slowly the Queen-Elect re-read the story she'd written. The bulk of it was rubbish, but she didn't really care. It wasn't for anyone else's enjoyment, it was just for her. She didn't expect anyone to read it, or if they did, they certainly wouldn't attribute any credibility to it. Except, maybe, for the fact that yes, there were turians. And yes they had arrived on K'OrSachea. And yes there was an individual called Garrus Vakarian, about whom she had in fact had the most unbecoming and frankly obscene thoughts. Beyond the descriptions of him, his intellect, his body, his voice and blue eyes, his talents and his instruction in warfare, he did not have an interest in the Queen-Elect. For him, the Queen-Elect, whose real name was Tai', was a student and little more than an aggravation. He tolerated her because he'd been ordered to. These K'OrSacheans that the turians had so matter-of-factly annexed five years ago were citizens of Palaven for no other reason than their planetary shielding had failed, and the planet was in the turian's system. Therefore, the K'orSacheans were citizens and subjects of Palaven High Command.

Oh, and the other things that were accurate were the internal turmoils of the government. But the Queen-Elect was not the Queen, and probably wouldn't be, because she was well aware that the K'OrSachean Council, who had held power for centuries, had paid well to make sure that she did not survive the ground conflict with which she and her platoon were assisting Garrus and his squad. The moon was a strategic vantage point for the remaining die-hard Cerberus troops, and they had taken advantage of the turians weakened state after the last Reaper Battle to dig in. They had chemical warfare down to an art form, not to mention the last of the biological weapons, mutated aliens of all sorts, and a truly nasty force field to protect it all. So the turians had enlisted the K'OrSacheans and their Zeni technology to dig under the Cerberus base and try the assault from the ground under them. It had been slow going, but it was proving effective. Tai's guess was that whoever in her group had taken the bribe to kill her, or who had had their family kidnapped and held as leverage to ensure the order was carried out, would wait until the campaign was over, or nearly so, to make their move on her.

So she knew she should finish her story as soon as she could, just for her own enjoyment. She had no real intention of sharing it, she felt sure that no one back home would understand how she would want to be intimate with an alien. She had watched the turians, and they were a truly randy and bumptious group. Whenever the opportunity arose for the group to bed down to rest, the turians started moving around to the various quarters, tents really, sometimes switching partners two or three times in an evening before deciding to sleep. Her squad had started taking bets on who would tag up with whom the next time they made camp. When dawn would come, the turians gave no indication of whether they were any more or less attached to whoever they had been with the evening before. One of her group had asked about how they managed not to have jealous fights with the way they behaved, and the group of turians of whom he had asked this question seemed literally baffled by the query. No one in the group was mated, and they would not mate until the campaign was over. Sex with an unmated individual was nothing more than relaxation and group-bonding. Sex with a mated individual was a death sentence from the offended mate. It was a whole different situation. Neither Tai' nor her group really understood.

But it intrigued her. Tai' watched Garrus from afar. He had visits occasionally from one female in particular, Pila, but only her. No other females approached him. He spent most of his nights alone, watching the landscape, going over plans for the next day, exercising. If it could be called that. What Tai' would have described it as would have been a cross between Tai Chi and kung fu. He moved slowly, gracefully for his size, the obvious power of him in every controlled stance. Sometimes he used a long rod in his exercises, sometimes a long, heavy pole with a wicked blade at each end. He moved so fast that sometimes he was a blur. He was so strong that the target dummies would pause a moment before they would fall in shreds to the ground. Sometimes he would engage in target practice with one of his aides, using laser sighting instead of real bullets. Always his group treated him with the greatest respect, and he treated them the same. He was a beloved leader, she could tell that much. Beyond that, he did not move close to her. She had for a long time assumed that it was because she annoyed him with her inexperience, but she'd proven herself useful, talented in the field. That was another thing that was accurate from the story she had written. She had extensive training and experience in the field, in warfare and combat theory. That she had portrayed herself in "The Last Queen" as such a girly-girl was an attempt to be something that she knew she wasn't. Tai' was strong, bold, highly educated, but she would never be able to see herself as pretty, or desirable, or anything that a man would want, let alone an alien. But she couldn't resist trying the role on for size, speculating on what a palace would be like, trying to pretend that she was a true royal beauty, shy, demure, inexperienced. Well, that part was true. She had no real experience. No one on K'OrSachea would make love to, or fuck, a half-breed. Tall, with long black hair, big dark eyes, skin with the telltale Mirrorian spots, pegged eye teeth … no human man or woman would touch her.

So, yes, she had a rich fantasy life. That was no secret. And Garrus was part of that fantasy. Tai' watched him, that distinctive V-shape of a man, long legs, powerful shoulders… he was a dream. She remembered seeing him naked in the turian showers one afternoon. She had a report, and his aide had led her into the enclosure. Tai' had thought it was like any other facility, but it was… their 'showers.' That was another thing. The fiction drummed up by the folks back home was totally wrong. Turians loved to take their clothes off. Especially in sand storms. That was what a turian shower was all about: it was a sand shower. Fine sand was blown in a kind of centrifuge, and they would all get in it and, well, shower. They loved it. So Tai' was led into this room to wait for Garrus, and out he came, tall and naked as the day he was born. And stood and had a long conversation with her. He was, as always acutely attentive, listening hard to every word, commenting when needed, thanking her when she finished, excusing himself and leaving. And Tai' stood there, trying hard to look at just his face, but when he looked away occasionally to speak to someone else who was passing or to read her report, she looked. Yes, indeed. And he was delicious to behold. Broad, strong shoulders, beautiful gleaming skin, blue veined cock wagging there, exclaiming loudly that it was in fact the finest example of parallel evolution that any self respecting woman could ever hope for.

And that was when the story started. She wanted to be wanted by him. Hunted and craved by him. She imagined herself to be the kind of strong, beautiful, exotic creature that he would desire. He would want to try her out, just to see what a human might be like. She would be confused by his alien-ness, but intrigued just the same. They would find each other through the confusion. It would be satisfying. Then he would save her from the bad guys, and they would live happily ever after. He would leave Palaven for her, and they would raise a family together.

But so far, no, he hadn't shown any interest.

And she knew why.

He was so absorbed by the reclaiming and rebuilding of Palaven, and the saving of his own people, that there was little room for anything else in his thoughts. That was all that mattered. They were all that mattered. It was his life. Saving people was what heaven had built him for, and he neither wanted nor needed anything else. And she had a hard time keeping the tears from filling her eyes when she realized that. He would never look her way. He hardly looked at even a female of his own kind, lovely as Pila was.

Tai' was so lost in thought the she didn't even hear Terry come up behind her. Terry was her Second-in-Command. Big, raucous, bald head, handle-bar moustache. He looked like he'd fit better into a biker movie. "Pining away for Spike-Head again, are you?" Terry left a lot to be desired in the diplomacy department.

"Yep." No use in trying to hide it. "He'd probably die of boredom before he got anywhere with me in any case, but fantasies don't hurt anyone." She turned to face him, her trusted comrade. She hoped. She hoped he wasn't the one who would kill her in the end. Or rather, maybe she did. If anyone had to do it, she'd prefer a friend, and she would know that, if he did, it was because they had threatened his family, and not because they had been able to bribe him instead.

"You were out late. Or should I say, glad you got here early enough to get packed to move."

"You will not believe where I've been…" He waited, but Tai' didn't bite. Instead she just stood there, hands on hips, crooked smile on her face. She knew he would spill the beans any way. "I spent the night with Pila." He waited for it to sink in.

"You what?!" Tai' was dumbstruck. The look on her face was priceless. Terry enjoyed that for a moment before elaborating.

"Yep. She came knocking last night, and I took her up on it. She said that she had always wanted to try out a human male ever since she had seen some old Earth porn, but that she hadn't been able to get close enough to one since the Reapers hit. And boy, let me tell you, I have never had a ride like that. She taught me things like you would not imagine."

"I don't know, I can imagine quite a bit." Tai' was finally able to talk again. "What are you going to do if Garrus decides to tear your head off and carry it around as a souvenir on one of those double-bladed things he uses in hand-to-hand drills?"

"Yeah, I asked her about that when she came in last night. She said that she and Garrus are not an item. She had known him way back when they first started in the service, and she tagged back up with him for this campaign, but she would never mate him. He's too philosophical for her taste." Terry waited for it to sink in. He knew the Queen would be intrigued.

For Terry, Tai' was his Queen, and would be the only Queen of his home world. He would do anything for her. He would die for her, kill for her, go to war against the K'OrSachean Council for her. She represented the only chance his people had to overcome thousands of years of caste tyranny. She treated him like a human being, with respect, even love. Him, a lowly soldier. A grunt. He wanted her to be happy, but he would never touch her himself. He felt he would never be worthy, and he would not cheat on his own wife with her. He knew that Tai' had no idea of her own pure gorgeousness, but just a glance from those beautiful dark eyes, or those fleeting moments when she favored him with a glimpse of her angelic smile, her perfect skin, every graceful thing about her was enough to make him babble if he wasn't careful. But he would take up the female turian for a little cross-species diplomatic exploration. And it had been worth every single sweaty, exhausting second. Yes, indeed. It took him a minute to come back to reality….

"Terry, you let your mind wander."

"Sorry, what did you ask?"

"What else did she say about Garrus?" Ok, she couldn't resist. Just couldn't. Didn't even really try.

"I mentioned that I knew about a human female who might be interested in a little bit closer contact with Garrus, and she said, now get this… she said that she knew. And she knew it was you. And all the turians knew it was you. And that Garrus knew it was you. And that none of them can figure out why you haven't visited him in his tent when we make camp."

The words caused a very real tingle to run up her spine. Tai' could almost hear her bra snaps trying to get themselves undone. After nearly a minute, she managed a small, embarrassed "What?"

"That's right. Apparently what happens is that the males wait to be chosen. They don't make advances. They don't have the first clue what flirting is. All they know is that when a female makes a move on them-invites them, as Pila says-then the motors start up. Before that, they're clueless. The only thing a bull turian is good for is fighting, making war, strategies, all of that. The only way a female will get a male, is if she goes after him. Not the other way around."

"Really… ?"

"Yeah, but once a female picks a male, and he knows he's been invited, and he has you in his sights, then watch out. You've got him for the night, and he will deliver. No questions asked. No ifs, ands or buts…"

_I can have him… If only for a night, or however long the campaign continues, I can have him… _ "You mean, all I have to do is go knock on his door, and he'll… uhm…"

"Yeah, he'll acquire target." Terry was hoping in his heart of hearts that it would be more than that. He had been doing everything in his power for years to protect the Queen, as had all of the members of the Chehada Guard. But they couldn't be everywhere at once. And the one place they could never be was in her bedroom. And since her mother's choice in father for her heir was so unpopular, Tai' would never have a husband. No high-born would have her. But Garrus. He was strong. He had pull in the right places. He could be the bodyguard in her bedroom, keep her safe until the Council could finally be overthrown.

"So why don't you take the evening off and go give the old bull a night to remember?"

She stood for a long moment after Terry had left to join the rest of their group. The sun was coming up over the moon. It was craggy, rocky, pitted. The majority of the turian forces were underground. The campaign to find the best underground base tunnels to get close enough to the Cerberus stronghold was the best bet they had to expunge the bastards, but it was taking time. For the first time, she didn't really mind. She did mind that it would take all day before she could try out Terry's theory and visit Garrus.

The day went as usual: sweep, clear, map, place seismic markers, update mapping, make the next camp site and set up, establish perimeter security, eat. And all the while, Tai' watched Garrus and fantasized. But what she didn't realize was that Pila had gone to Garrus. Like a high school girl, she reported every detail of what Terry had asked, though she did not discuss what she and Terry had just finished doing before Terry asked. It had seemed strange to her that the human male would want to know these things, like the social structure of casual turian sex. They didn't actually have a social structure, didn't think that hard about it, they just did it. Only humans were so inclined to think so hard about a natural act, even instituting all kinds of laws and rules and taboos about it. But then Pila had realized that he was asking for the benefit of the young female leader, who always carried the scent of arousal when Garrus was near, but never approached him. Garrus had been mystified by that, had thought that perhaps it was one of those taboos that kept her at bay. He did know that he would have to wait until she approached him, scent was not enough for him to take the initiative. Maybe she simply did not know that she could have pleasures with a turian. If she'd asked, he would have told her.

Not that he was that driven to be with her, he was simply aware, and would make himself available should she decide to have him.

He let the thought of the human female go, and turned his focus back to Palaven. Reports for the day were the same as he'd read for the last eight months. The Zeni technology was in fact helping make real progress on the planet. Where some turians had been angry that K'OrSachea had been spared, so close to Palaven, what they were really beginning to understand was that if they had been found by the Reapers, the technologies that were healing them would have been lost if K'OrSachea had been detected. Those technologies had provided medicines so powerful that they had actually reversed the marauders and brought them back. Tunnels had been built for shelter. Food was synthesized fast enough and in great enough quantity to stave off starvation in whole populations. And for the most part it was because this human female leader had handed the technologies over to them. Spirits knew that her Council had hidden them the best they could. Tai' had handed it over, against her government's instruction. She had told the turians where to get it, how to use it, where there was more. And for her treason, even though the turians had warned this Council that Tai' was the one with whom the true treaty had been established, the Council had made sure that she was on this moon campaign. It was a diplomatic exchange, she would be nothing but an observer. But Garrus knew right up front what it was. It was a way to get her killed while she was off-world. That way her people would not know she had been assassinated. It could simply be a result of being in a dangerous place. She was smart, but she had no real power, not yet. She had information, but no royal status beyond her bloodline. She was a pain in her government's ass. And Garrus didn't want any of his group getting killed by standing too close to her. Cold as that seemed, what it boiled down to was that he had lost a lot of people who meant a lot to him, and he had, whether consciously or unconsciously, decided that he wasn't going to let anyone else into his heart. Not again. Not ever. Since he had lost Commander Shepherd, and so many others in the Reaper War, and so many after in the wake of the destruction, Garrus shut down his heart. If she came to him, he would do as she wished for the treaty's sake. But he would not mate her. He would not mate anyone. He would give his seed to the repopulation programs, but he would not be a husband, or father, or lover. His heart was too broken, and he knew it. He would be of no value to her even if she asked.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

As he had done for the weeks that he had been on this moon, Garrus spent the evening looking up at wounded Palaven, and the huge red wound-the color of human blood-where his home city used to be. The fires had been burning for years, fed by underground pipelines that had once carried natural gas from the planet's interior to the bases, but later buried when new, more efficient fuels were utilized. Those pipelines had contributed almost limitless fuel to the conflagration. Only the Zeni technology in the form of robotic machinery was beginning to reduce the area, sealing the gaping pipelines and allowing crews to deposit ceramic and lead tiling over the radioactivity. Rubble was filled in over that, then soil, and buildings were starting to reappear, along with dots of light where infrastructure was tentatively taking hold.

The Zeni: ancient worm-like beings who had colonized K'OrSachea, one solar system away from Palaven, had hidden for thousands of years underneath powerful ancient shielding, and were now playing a key role in the rebuilding of Palaven. Only after the fuel for the shield had began to be used up did gaps begin to form in the cloaking shield, allowing a cascade failure that had revealed Earth-like K'OrSachea, from whence the female leader, Tai' Chehada, had come. Her people claimed to have been kidnapped from Earth and brought to K'OrSachea for slave labor for the Zeni. But Asari archeologists had almost immediately disproven that theory. What they had discovered was that, in fact, humans had originated on K'OrSachea, and been transported by the Zeni to Earth, possibly as an advance terra-forming plan. The indications were that once, long ago, the Zeni and the humans had lived in harmony, possibly in a symbiotic society structure.

But then a faction of those humans had attacked the Zeni and driven them underground, taking over the planet. Only after a colony of hibernating individuals had been found, deep inside the planetary core, had the real story come out. That revelation had furthered the movement to overthrow the K'OrSachean government, since their claim had always been that they had liberated their people from the Zeni. But the people hadn't needed to be liberated. What had actually happened was that their beneficiaries had been defeated and nearly driven to extinction by the same group that had kept their world under an iron rule of caste structure.

As usual, the relief that he felt this evening for the recovery of his planet was short-lived, because he automatically jumped from that to the next thing that needed to be done. The dreadnaughts had to be repaired and replaced. The repopulation programs had to be tended and fed. The water systems had to be rebuilt. The boundaries had to be patrolled in case any other enemies wanted to move into their neighborhood and drive the great turians closer to extinction, as the Cerberus splinter group here on this moon was trying to do. They had nearly succeeded in detonating a series of mines that would have destroyed this moon, turning it into a giant asteroid field that could then be driven into the planet's surface. When they'd been discovered, the mines had been disabled, but the group had enveloped themselves in a bubble of force fields, strong enough to literally withstand the destruction of this moon itself. The Illusive Man had been able to keep his base in the orbit around a red dwarf, he could certainly create a force field strong enough to do that. The only way to get into that force field was to use, once again, Zeni technology. Robotic colonies of nannites would be planted against the field, and they would grow exponentially, adapting and disrupting the field in a series of electrical cracks that would eventually cause the field to disperse. But his group had to get close enough to the bubble to plant the nannites. And the only way to get close enough was underground, in the turian base caves under the bubble.

It would be done. Soon, and then Garrus could return to Palaven to join the crews rebuilding the waterways, or the power pipelines, or remove rubble. But until then, he was here.

He went over the next day's plan, took some target practice, ate his evening meal of freeze-dried blood and a bag of cree-chees, which were best if eaten while still alive. The insects were among the few things that were still surviving on Palaven, and they were at least good for nutrition. They were bland, but if they died, they tasted absolutely wretched. It was while he was reading the latest news reports from the capital that he heard the human female approach his quarters. He thought little of it when he realized she was there, simply that sexual release with her would be pleasant enough, and he knew he needed the respite. But he also hoped it wouldn't take too long, he had work to do.

He turned to the doorway when she knocked on the pole that held up the front of his tent. "Welcome, lady." His voice was low, cordial, formal. He stood, went to the tent flap, held it for her, and let her step in passed him.

There was a comforting quality to the sound of Garrus' voice that Tai' had come to love. He was calm as a mountain lake. His eyes were ice-blue, intelligent, laser-sharp. He never panicked. She knew that those qualities were some of the greatest reasons that he was a strong leader. He fostered loyalty by his calm demeanor. He knew what he was doing, and everyone around him sensed it.

"I hope I'm not bothering you." She knew that she needed only to 'invite' him in order to illicit a sexual response from him, but she was still not sure what 'inviting' meant. Throw her clothes off and crawl in his lap, head-butt him, slap him, bribe him with food, bark? Just saying, "Hey, Garrus, wanna do a human girl," seemed impersonal and forward, obvious and vulgar. She did want to at least try to walk away with some modicum of dignity.

"Of course not, come in. Please." _Spirits, I hope she doesn't want to have a conversation. _

Tai' came into the tent, which was small, Spartan, but with at least a comfortable looking inflatable mattress at the back wall. She sat on a bench at what she hoped was a tactically acceptable distance from both him and the bed. "I saw you looking at Palaven tonight. You do that every evening."

She continued, a little embarrassed, trying to hide her discomfort. "I guess you know why I'm here. I truly hope you'll excuse me if I'm a bit… clumsy, the way I go about… this…" her voice trailed off. Tai' could tell he was no longer listening to her.

_Damn, she wants to have a conversation. _He would be polite. It was in his breeding and training to be polite. But he didn't want to talk. He didn't feel like talking. When he'd tried to talk before, mostly with Pila, because he thought she might understand, he had been rebuked. He spoke with too much sentiment about his fallen comrades. He shouldn't have been so, well, depressed about the losses; they had after all died gloriously for their cause. He should be proud, he should not have lamented them, he should get over it. And he'd tried to believe that she knew what she was talking about, he shouldn't have been mourning Commander Shepherd. So he kept the hurt to himself. But hurt was all he had. So he said almost nothing anymore.

The Mirrorian in Tai' sensed the sadness roll over him. That was what a Mirrorian did: they pulled together the strings in a situation, read them, interpreted them, and adapted to them, or understood how to change them. In old Earth language, a Mirrorian was a profiler. In the German dialect, a Mirrorian was a Gestaulter: one who grasped the whole picture at once. And she did not want to suggest that he make love if he was doing it out of duty. Out of enjoyment, experimentation, relaxation, she could stand those motivations. But not if he was doing it in spite of a broken heart. She realized that she needed to leave. But she didn't want to walk out on hi to leed that she needed to go. But she didn'eart.

was doing it out of duty. Out of enjoyment, experimentation, relaxatim abruptly, without a word or an explanation.

"Garrus, I can see that you've got something on your mind. I'll leave you alone for now if you prefer." She got up from the bench, and went to him where he stood near the door. Her dark eyes locked with his, and she felt the pain pour out of him. "You're mourning your friends, aren't you? The ones who died in the Reaper War, and after. Them, and your ravaged planet. I'm so very sorry." She touched a shoulder for just a moment, then let her hand fall.

He was startled. How could an alien read his mind? And why hadn't she scolded him to snap out of it? "What would make you say that? I revel in their loss and sacrifice." But the words were hollow, and sounded like an abomination the moment he said them.

She paused a moment. That sort of thing happened sometimes. When a Mirrorian hit a nerve, the person they were with would withdraw from the truth they'd been suddenly forced to face. Or react with anger or denial, or switch to an opposite response.

"Garrus, I've been expected to say exactly the correct thing at exactly the right time my entire life. I can tell when someone is trying to hide their true feelings because they believe that they should. You don't have to cover up what you're feeling for my sake, I'm not turian, and I don't have any expectations of what you should or shouldn't be feeling or saying. But I'm not going to put you in the position to have to hide something that you clearly don't want to talk about, or do something with me out of duty, when we should only be doing it because we want to. Maybe, sometime, if I'm really, really lucky, it might even be because you're as attracted to me as I am to you. Maybe." She smiled up at him briefly, and started out the door. "I'll leave you to your thoughts. Maybe some other time we can try this again."

But he stopped her, this time his hand going to her shoulder. He had never been in the position to choose, to say no if he wanted, to have someone-a female someone-accept him wholly for his own sake. He was stunned. To be accepted just as he was, not for the duty he was expected to perform for someone else's sake, was suddenly, breathtakingly, astounding. Just as humans anthropomorphized other creatures, attributing their own qualities and thoughts to them, so Garrus had done the same with Tai'. He had expected her to demand what turian females expected: an erection and the delivery of pleasure, with little conversation except where and when appropriate.

Suddenly, powerfully, he wanted her. He had never thought much about human females, other than the fact that they were for the most part very lovely to look at, and he was well aware that human men were greatly drawn to their softness, their breasts, their hair and their voices. But no human female had ever invited him, so he had never had a physical response to one. But this one, yes, she was dazzling. Long, soft, dark hair, large intelligent eyes… the Mirrorian markings were almost reminiscent of a turian's tattoo. His mind darted involuntarily forward to doing things to her like the things he had seen in the old human pornography films, or vids. Then, afterward, telling her stories, asking her opinions, laughing.

And just as suddenly, he realized that he had actually, almost, opened a crack in his armor. As quickly as his exuberance had seized him, he pushed it away. _No, no, no… get her away… not again... no more…_

But she had seen the crack open, saw a glimpse of light in his eyes, and reached up and touched his face gently before the pain could swallow him away from her again. "I want to know it, Garrus. I want to know whatever you want to tell me."

"No, you don't. You don't want to see the darkness in this old heart." But as he said it, he knew that his heart was cracking and breaking further, harder, faster, this time because he had visualized having her, having a relationship with her, and then in the same thought seen himself losing her.

"Yes, I do." She framed his face with her hands. "I want to hear everything you have to say. I'm not afraid. You are a noble, brave warrior who has walked the wall so that I can sleep without fear. I can face what you need to say, Garrus. You were brave enough to face it for me, I'm brave enough to share it, for however long I get. A day. A week. A lifetime."

"Why. Why would you want that? I am alien to you. "

"I don't know why. I only know that I do. Somehow, I've seen you coming toward me my whole life, and now that you're here… just being near you is enough. But damn it, if I can have more, I'm going to try to get it. You can't stop me from trying, Garrus. You can reject me, but you can't stop me from trying."

That did it. The desire returned then, and did not retreat. Garrus reached up and took both of her wrists in his strong hands, and pulled them up over her head, pulled them together, and held them suspended in one hand. At first she had no idea what he was doing, but when the other hand reached down and traced her face, her neck, down the front of her body, and over her breasts, she realized he was holding her still, captive, while he began to explore her in preparation for taking her. She had caught glimpses through tent flaps of other males doing the same thing with other females, and she had wondered at it. Then she realized, stunningly, that he had 'acquired his target.' He was getting ready to deliver. She went weak in the knees as he held her against the tent pole, tracing her body, gently exploring, inhaling her in long, slow breaths, gently tracing her neck with his mouth. She heard a deep, rumbling growl rise up in his chest, but it was strangely comforting, exciting, delicious. It was so deep it rumbled inside her own chest. She realized she was nearly hanging from her wrists, still captive in his left hand above her head, but the strength that she sensed in his body was intoxicating.

He let her hands go, and reached the same strong arm around her shoulders, the other at her knees, and suddenly lifted her like a child, cradling her. What he did next was the strangest, most exciting thing she could have ever imagined. He seized her neck in his mouth, very nearly completely enveloping it, and held her firmly, but gently. Still growling, he slowly knelt to the floor, holding her in his powerful arms, his jaws and teeth immobilizing her in strange, savage delight. His breath smelled of fresh cut cedar, warm and delicious. He did not hurt her, he did not puncture her skin with the rows of sharp teeth, but he made his great strength very, very clear to her. A flicker of a thought and he could have ripped her throat out, but he wasn't going to. It wasn't his intention. He was in domination mode, proving his strength and his worthiness to the female who had chosen him. That was what a turian female would have required of him: that he prove he was strong enough, male enough, to take her the way she desired.

He held her suspended for a long moment, then slowly released her neck, his warm tongue tracing lazily up to her chin. Then he slowly rose, and carried her to the mattress, laying her down. He then straddled her and, quite unceremoniously, grasped her fatigues and tore them right down the middle and off of her. He then, just as unceremoniously, buried his tongue inside her, licking and stroking her so insistently that she was left utterly helpless and moaning on the bed beneath the flood of his hungry exploration, wanting to scream, or cry, or both at the pleasure. She found herself coming so hard and so quickly that she did in fact scream into her arm, trying hard to muffle the cry, knowing that everyone outside would be able to hear her. She was suddenly tortured by the image of everyone outside muffling their laughter, or laughing out loud, at the cliché of her 'being a screamer.' But just as suddenly, she realized she didn't care. This was good. It was so damned good. She reached down and grabbed the two horns at the sides of his head, and almost laughed. _He even comes with handles!_

When he had had his fill, nearly… _she smells and tastes like a salt ocean… how very delicious…_ He rose up, moved off of the bed, and started removing his clothes. She took the opportunity to remove what was left of hers, and laid back down in time to have him move over her.

"Do you want to face me, or do you want me to take you from behind, female?" She didn't exactly know what to say.

"Both."

He laughed. Then he flipped her over, and supporting her hips, pushing her legs open, thrusting every inch of that work of art cock that she'd seen months earlier into her, and at the same time he took her neck into his mouth again, this time from the back. She involuntarily had the image of a lion mating a lioness, where the lion grabbed the nape of his mate's neck to hold her while he had his way. She thought she would literally faint, she had never felt such bewildering pleasure. His thrusts were strong, pulling nearly completely out of her before pushing back in, letting her feel every inch, every pulse, every throb of heat. He recalled the vids, where a human female's greatest pleasure point lay, and reached around to her clit, rubbing slowly in time to his thrusts. She came again, powerfully, almost painfully. When he felt her release again, he stopped, turned her over, and pulled her leg up while he pushed into her again, this time harder and deeper. It was his turn, and he was going to have her, bull turian style, hard, relentless.

Garrus took the human female. He had never taken one before, so he was literally overwhelmed by her. Turian females had patches of soft skin that were very erogenous for turian males, much the way human males liked breasts. This human female was _covered_ in that delicious soft skin. Her breasts, tits, whatever he was supposed to call them, were an absolute delight. She gave herself to him, moaning and enjoying what he was doing, opening for him, her wetness enveloping him. He was aghast. He could not get enough. Not nearly enough. Her tightness around him was hypnotic, and he rocked back and forth on an on, panting, breathing her in, smelling her, tasting her, breathing in her breath. His release was so strong, he could not keep himself from roaring, hard, then the weariness rolled over him powerfully, though he would not fall asleep.

He finished, and rolled over to her side, pulling her close to him, trapping her inside a powerful arm, her legs entangling in his, and they slept. When Garrus woke, he realized that, for the first time in years, he had slept through the night without waking to nightmares of screams.


End file.
